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If you’re an honest solar salesperson, historically you’ve always dreaded a certain question: “Will my system keep running when the power grid goes down?” The dread is because without energy storage the answer was no. Batteries have long been expensive, and most buyers were still stomaching adding solar power. Customers definitely want energy storage – and, in key markets, we’re starting to see deployments, however its still typically around $10,000 more to make that happen and companies like Tesla – even with “mad growth” – are running a tight supply ship.

Enphase wants to deliver the hardware to change that answer: the IQ8. And, in a report from solar installer on Run on Sun, we’re starting to get glimpses of what Enphase has been talking about since the summer of 2017.

From the Run on Sun description:

One of the engineers switched off the breaker that connected the PV array to the grid… and nothing happened! Well, actually, a lot happened, but what didn’t happen was that the red light did not go off. It didn’t even flicker to the extent that we could detect it. But then when you looked at the display you noticed something amazing. Not only had the microinverters created a grid on their own in fractions of a second, but they had throttled the output down so that now the production of the PV array exactly matched the load of the red light!

In essence, the IQ8 – with all of its integrated smarts – has the ability to understand what is going on in the household and react. The system will feed as much electricity as it has access to based upon sunlight available and solar power capacity, and it will adjust on the fly. Also noted by Run on Sun was when too much energy from the house was being pulled – more than sunlight and installed capacity could provide – the whole system shut down, only to instantly restart when the excess load was removed.

Smart. Real smart.

We already know that First Solar proved to California that its hardware – solar panels plus inverters – can offer grid services on its own. And we’ve also got results from Hawaii and NREL, plus very recently from PG&E in California, that show electric utilities can tap into and make use of module-level inverters to help manage the grid. This Enphase technology suggests an even greater level of intelligence from the household level that the utilities haven’t even contemplated yet.

While Enphase does believe energy storage has a very important role to play, as can be seen in their broader Ensemble line, you no longer “need it,” and that’s a revolution in solar power.

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John Weaver

John Fitzgerald Weaver is a solar developer; known digitally as the 'Commercial Solar Guy. ' For the past decade, as project developer and installer, he’s sold and managed 50+ solar projects, ranging in size from 5kW to 1500kW, with occasional involvement in larger sizes.

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18 comments

While Enphase does believe energy storage has a very important role to play, as can be seen in their broader Ensemble line, you no longer “need it,” and that’s a revolution in solar power.

You no longer need what? Storage? What happens when sun is down? half the year or better the sun is out how many hours? 8? Tell us the amount of actual power is provided during sun hours? Cloudy? And TOU is the bigger issue between 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM in most utilities. And the batteries that Enphase is touting won’t power much at all.

8 hours is better than 0 hours! Imagine how frustrating it must be if you cannot run essential devices during a blackout when you have the panels sitting right there on your roof. And yes, it’s not enough power to run every device in your house, but imagine how useful it could be to keep your wifi running plus a PC if you work at home, or cool one room in a very hot climate. Add a few of the new 10 kWh battery, you can pretty much carry on like normal.

Jeff – as part of the Ensemble line-up that Enphase will have 1H19, are two battery capacities at 3.3 kWh and 10 kWh. Clearly storage matters for time-shifting production, but the point is that you can make a microgrid without the cost of storage. Best… Jim

Enphase looks like they are going to break into a whole new cycle with the advancements in microinverters and their push for complete power management solutions. Looking forward to see their smart energy systems next year and on.

I don’t know, this sounds a little fishy doesn’t it, where is the video? How can they possibly be able to throttle the solar production to match the load quickly enough. Microinverters can’t create a Microgrid, not in our lifetime when you need all sorts of batteries and hardware and controls systems to manage that so this is probably a joke or marketing ploy which if that’s what it is I guess there is no such thing as bad press. If they actually release something along these lines and it works and is affordable, I will take my hat off to them and if I were a utility company I would be a little concerned this kind of thing could be very disruptive to their business.

I have 28 pamels with microinverter. It is attached to the power company. I use their electricity at night and they use mine at daylight. No battery to storage. The problem is during shoot off the electricy by the company because I loose the electricity at day.. fotovaltic system is disconnected when the company disconnect,specially when storm are coming to Puerto Rico. I am interesting to acwuire and sel your product. The explanation on houw it works is not cleas. May you asistme?

As a pv contractor, I am very excited about offering this to my customers. If it works though. I admit that I am a little skeptical, but only because I just have to see it to believe it. However, from what I experienced as an installer, Enphase has continued to put out the highest quality equipment year after year. Without a doubt the top choice for anyone I know in the pv isntallation profession. So I have confidence they will come through, cant wait! This is huge! The ability to generate without storage independently from a utility grid tie is groundbreaking, way ahead of the pack! Exactly what everyone wants for their home. Who wants to grid tie? It goes against the idea of going solar to grid tie with a utility company. You still have a power bill with grid tie. This gives consumers total control over whether they want to continue to pay monoply utility companies, or produce their own power instead for less money. Awesome!!!

Solar is great, but only works when there is sun. Here in Europe we produce a lot of solar energy in summer time, because we can have up to 17 hours of light in summer. But that meens we need only need some power during the night. That could be solved by a few batteries, however in wintertime the production of solar is less than 10% of trhe production in summertime and then we need the most power because the days are much shorter and and there is often no sun. So batteries will have to be huge to cover wintertime, but that is impossible. So we always have to use the grid.

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